A vehicle computing platform can enable a number of features that enhance the driving experience and/or provide assistance to the driver. A rearview camera is one such feature. Images captured by the rearview camera can be displayed within the sight range of the driver of the vehicle, to assist the driver in avoiding obstacles when driving in reverse, for example. Vehicles are often driven in reverse to exit a parking space. Therefore, it is common for drivers to shift into the reverse gear shortly after starting the vehicle.
Many computing platforms use a special-purpose operating mode to handle system-wide functions, such as, for example, power management, hardware control, and/or error handling. In some computing environments, the special-purpose operating mode is known as the System Management Mode (SMM), and that term may be used herein to refer to such special-purpose operating modes more generally.
The SMM is a platform service that s typically hidden from any operating system being executed by the processor of the computing platform. Use of the system management mode may be initiated by the generation of a management interrupt event such as a system management interrupt (SMI) or a platform management interrupt (PMI) depending upon the particular processor architecture. These interrupt events are usually non-maskable and thus take precedence over maskable interrupts and other events. Typically, the management interrupt initiates an asynchronous process that runs concurrently with any operating system processes that may be executing.